The Annex Theater’s Knee Play Series

The Annex Theater, who regularly churn out visually lush, ambitious original productions and off-beat adaptations have begun what they’re calling a Knee Play Series. Of course, we immediately took that to mean a series of plays thematically linked around that joint in our lower extremities. But we were wrong. By “Knee Play” the folks at the Annex mean plays that are, well, about knee-high. They’re smaller in scale and scope– featuring maybe only one or two performers– who are also usually the writers and creators of the pieces, and they exist in a kind of extreme intimacy– meant for a small audience and a small space. If a full-scale play is a raging dance party, a knee play is an invitation to high tea. And we’re excite to note that the knee play opening next week at the Annex’s Chicken Box venue is 6000 Things I Would Do if You Died Before Me, by Trevor Wilhelms.

Wilhelms wrote and performed the first piece in the Annex’s Knee Play Series, and it was a lovely introduction to the form and structure of this tightly enclosed style of theater. 600 Things… takes on questions like: when does grief end and hallucination begin? And where are the limits of the hallways of the broken brain? Wilhelms moves from there to dive soul­-first into this darkly enjoyable exploration of the jails we build around ourselves. It may be only knee high, but certainly, it goes deep.

6000 Things I Would Do If You Died Before Me opens June 19th and runs through June 22 at the Station North Chicken Box, 1 W. North Ave. Tickets are $5 general admission. More information is available at www.baltimoreannextheater.com